Land record digitisation; a challenging yet crucial task: Chief Secretary

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SRINAGAR: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, chairing a meeting held to assess the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP), urged the Revenue Department to tackle the massive digitisation task head-on and work towards completing it within the stipulated timeframe.

 The meeting besides Financial Commissioner, Revenue (FCR) was attended by Commissioner Secretary, IT; Secretary, Revenue and Director, Land Records.

The Chief Secretary reviewed the progress on all the components including the digitisation of Jamabandis, vectorization/digitisation of cadastral maps, modernisation of record rooms, scanning of past records and updation of the pending backlog mutations.

Dulloo emphasised upon the department to enhance the capacity of the additional staff provided to them. He asked for ensuring the records are entered correctly without any error. He maintained that the primary objective of this programme is to provide efficient system to the citizens and once completed people should have no grievances about the accuracy of records.

FCR ACS, Shaleen Kabra, threw light on different accomplishments achieved, so far. He maintained that most of the prerequisite ground work had already been done to take up the remaining work of modernisation in a mission mode. He made out that at the end of the programme there would be real time updation of records besides paperless registrations would also be a reality across the districts of the UT.

 Secretary Revenue, Kumar Rajeev Ranjan, while informing the meeting about the progress made, so far, revealed that NIC-JK developed software for digital entry, mutation and real-time updates of Jamabandis has been successfully customised.

He further gave out that the pilot projects in Khairi Dadyal (Nagrota Tehsil) and Chak Wahab Din (Suchetgarh Tehsil) have demonstrated proof-of-concept. To accelerate digitization, each district will deploy 100 Master Trainers with 43 already trained, he added.

It was also revealed that the key initiatives included integration with the National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS), public access to real-time auto-updated Records of Rights (RoR) and infrastructure support from JaKEGA for training and hosting.

To ensure spatial accuracy, it was apprised that a high-resolution mapping is underway, with a Virtual Control Points Library being developed for geospatial referencing. Additionally, significant progress included BISAG-facilitated map returns, mother map finalisation, mobile app development for sub-parcel updates and integration with satellite imagery targeted to be accomplished within the next 12 months.

Since 2019, property registration has transitioned to a fully online model via NGDRS. The process now supports paperless deed creation using the “My Deed” editor, PAN verification, Digi Locker and citizen feedback via the RAS platform. All 86 Sub-Registrar Offices have been equipped with CCTV systems to ensure complete transparency. A Model Deed is under final vetting to enable end-to-end digital operations in near future.

While legacy document digitization is ongoing and being uploaded on the LRIS portal, physical infrastructure for 207 Modern Record Rooms (MRRs) awaits funding clearance. Once completed, these facilities will offer compact storage, operational efficiency and digital access systems in all the tehsil headquarters of the UT.

To streamline the citizen verification, Aadhaar linkage with land records is being executed thereby generating separate ULPINs for different land patches found under public and private use. It was further informed that the land parcels already supported with corresponding Aadhar numbers by virtue of integration with PM-KISAN data will be prioritised. The rest of the beneficiaries were said to be enrolled during Farmer Registry camps held across the villages later.

Moreover, it was given out that all the 881 Revenue Courts are now digitized and integrated into the JK Revenue Court Cases Monitoring System (JKRCCMS). The citizens can conveniently access the case details, interim orders and final decisions online at https://rccms.jk.gov.in. It was added that the final uploading of legacy cases is also underway.

Atal Dulloo highlighted the pivotal role of digital integration, accurate geo-referencing and citizen empowerment in land administration reforms. He emphasized continued inter-departmental coordination and institutional support to realize a transparent, accessible and efficient land governance system for the overall development across different sectors including social, agricultural and industrial sectors across the UT.